1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and an apparatus for sharing location information of an electronic device, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for automatically changing a range of sharing location information of an electronic device according to context.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the development of digital technologies, various electronic devices (e.g., mobile communication terminals, smart phones, tablet personal computers, or the like) that enable communication and personal information processing are used widely. These electronic devices provide voice calls, video calls, a message sending and receiving function, such as a Short Message Service (SMS) and a Multimedia Message Service (MMS), a navigation function, a location determination function, a photographing function, a reproducing function of images or media (e.g. moving images and music), an Internet function, a messenger function and Social Networking Services (SNS).
Particularly, the electronic device provides location-based services, such as a location determination function and a navigation function. The location-based service is one of the technologies by which the location of an electronic device is determined by using signals of base stations in mobile networks or satellites, and various information services are provided in relation to the determined location. In order to provide location-based services, methods of determining the location are typically based on a Global Positioning System (GPS) as well as cell-identifiers (cell-IDs) of cellular networks or identifiers of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks.
In addition, when a user posts an article on the SNS, such as Twitter® and Facebook®, in a specific region or posts an article about a specific region, such information is shared with acquaintances with a display to show that the user was in the corresponding region. Then, the electronic device may adjust the range of sharing location information according to intimacy of the other person in sharing the location information. For example, the location of the user may be shared with the family in a wide range of sharing the location information, and with his/her friends or co-workers in a narrow range of sharing the location information.
However, unless the user changes the range of sharing the location information, the location information may be shared with others in the fixed range of sharing.